Fuel burning fireplaces and stoves are very popular and desirable in houses and apartments, both for heating as well as for aesthetics. There are two primary types of fuel burning fireplaces and stoves--those in which solid fuels such as wood, coal, coke, peat or combinations thereof are burned, and those which burn gas and have simulated solid fuel elements, such as artificial logs, to add an element of realism. Gas fires in stoves and fireplaces have the advantage that they do not require manual refueling or clearing of ashes and they are very controllable. Because of the advantages of gas fires, considerable efforts have been made to recreate the appearance of traditional solid fuel fires.
Simulated solid fuel gas fires for fireplaces, that is, those having artificial solid fuel elements such as logs, are known. In general, these consist of a simulated fuel bed which is heated to incandescence by flames, or by the products of combustion of flames, to simulate the visible glowing embers of a solid fuel fire. A principal feature in the aesthetic appeal of real, or traditional, solid fuel fires is the existence of visually perceptible, luminous flames flickering about the main fuel bed. Such flames can be closely mimicked in simulated solid fuel gas fires by burning neat gas, i.e., gas with little or no primary aeration, which produces a yellow flame. Simulated solid fuel gas fires which incorporate this feature in combination with an incandescent or glowing bed are known. Such neat gas flames, like those produced in real or traditional solid fuel fires, are not static or spatially fixed, but move or waver about irregularly or randomly due to the airflow in the fireplace.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,609, discloses a simulated solid fuel fireplace having a main heater burner and a plurality of flame effect burners. The flame effect burners burn neat gas (non-aerated) to produce yellow flames, while the heater burner burns a gas-air mixture with a higher air content to produce very hot "blue" flames for space heating purposes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,446 also discloses a simulated
solid fuel fire which has a neat gas burner for producing visible yellow flames and a main burner for producing blue heat flames.
There is generally incomplete combustion of the neat gas burned in neat gas burners due to the low air-to-gas ratio in the burners. As a result of the incomplete combustion, carbon monoxide and soot are produced as by-products of the flames. For safety reasons, it is desirable to minimize the production of carbon monoxide and soot.
Fuel burning stoves having heat exchangers for heating room air are also known. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,258,693 and 4,688,545, which are directed to solid fuel (such as wood) burning stoves having a combustion chamber and an air space through which room air is circulated to be heated prior to discharge into the adjacent room. These devices have the drawbacks associated with solid fuel burning fireplaces, i.e., manual refueling, clearing of ashes, lack of direct control over the flames. UK Patent
Application Nos. 2,193,569A and 2,177,490A disclose simulated solid fuel gas fires with heat exchange mechanisms for heating ambient air in the adjacent rooms. These devices, which use simulated solid fuel, do not provide aesthetically pleasing, realistic flame fires.
The known gas fireplace and stove assemblies, including those featuring horizontally stacked artificial logs, are generally lacking in either the aesthetics of real flame fires or in heat production, or both, as well as having the drawback of producing undesirable by-products due to the incomplete combustion of neat gas. The present invention addresses the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a very realistic-looking simulated gas fire in a stove assembly having horizontally stacked artificial logs which provides substantial heat to the surroundings through a heat exchange mechanism and which produces minimal undesirable combustion by-products.